Rahul's schooling was at St Anthony's till the third standard and from then on at the St Joseph's Boys School.
Now St. Joseph's is a big name for education in Bangalore. Some of the finest products in various fields are Josephites.
The St Joseph's Boys School and the St Joseph's Indian High School, both run by the Jesuits Society, have an impeccable reputation.
The St .Joseph's College of Commerce (SJCC) and the St. Joseph's College of Arts and Science (now merged as one into St Joseph's College)
are the premium educational institutions.

St Joseph's Boys School (SJBS), where Rahul studied, is situated on Museum Road. It shares a small ground on campus with St Joseph's Arts
and Science College (SJA&Sc). Of course both institutions have their own grounds elsewhere, SJBS at Mahatma Gandhi Road (a short distance away
from Museum Road) and (SJA&Sc) at the nearby St Joseph's Hostel (which it shares with SJCC) on Richmond Road.

Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail and the late Mark Mascarenhas of WorldTel were both products of SJBS. Sadanand Vishwanath too did his
schooling till the 9th standard in SJBS. Thus when Rahul joined, he was simply walking in the footsteps of many an illustrious product of this
outstanding institution.

"I played for both the juniors and seniors team at SJBS. But funnily cricket was not a major sport in school then. The inter-school cricket
competition for ICSE schools was conducted by our rivals Bishop Cotton School. So we were not too bothered about it. Our school hosted the inter-school hockey tournament.
Thus hockey was a very big sport for us. Winning at hockey was everything," Rahul pointed out.

Luckily for Indian cricket though, the ICSE schools had a very structured format for sports. Unlike the majority of the schools
which followed the SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) pattern and thus had their academic year from June to May, the
ICSE schools had the calendar year as the academic year (they too have since fallen into the June-to-May pattern).

Rahul's schooling was at St Anthony's till the
third standard and from then on at the St Joseph's
Boys School. Now St. Joseph's is a big name for
education in Bangalore. Some of the finest products
in various fields are Josephites. The St Joseph's
Boys School and the St Joseph's Indian High School,
both run by the Jesuits Society, have an impeccable
reputation. The St .Joseph's College of Commerce (SJCC)
and the St. Joseph's College of Arts and Science
(now merged as one into St Joseph's College) are
the premium educational institutions.

St Joseph's Boys School (SJBS), where Rahul
studied, is situated on Museum Road. It shares a
small ground on campus with St Joseph's Arts and
Science College (SJA&Sc). Of course both
institutions have their own grounds elsewhere, SJBS
at Mahatma Gandhi Road (a short distance away from
Museum Road) and (SJA&Sc) at the nearby St Joseph's
Hostel (which it shares with SJCC) on Richmond
Road.

Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail and the late Mark
Mascarenhas of WorldTel were both products of SJBS.
Sadanand Vishwanath too did his schooling till the
9th standard in SJBS. Thus when Rahul joined, he
was simply walking in the footsteps of many an
illustrious product of this outstanding
institution.

"I played for both the juniors and seniors team at
SJBS. But funnily cricket was not a major sport in
school then. The inter-school cricket competition
for ICSE schools was conducted by our rivals Bishop
Cotton School. So we were not too bothered about
it. Our school hosted the inter-school hockey
tournament. Thus hockey was a very big sport for
us. Winning at hockey was everything," Rahul
pointed out.

Luckily for Indian cricket though, the ICSE schools
had a very structured format for sports. Unlike the
majority of the schools which followed the SSLC
(Secondary School Leaving Certificate) pattern and
thus had their academic year from June to May, the
ICSE schools had the calendar year as the academic
year (they too have since fallen into the
June-to-May pattern).

The ICSE schools were just a handful in number, but
this allowed them to plan and coordinate their
curriculum better.

Thus there were definite seasons for football,
hockey and cricket. The cricket season came after
the football and hockey seasons. This was
fortuitous for it allowed Rahul to also play
cricket.

"I played four years of hockey for the school as
centre half and later right half. We practiced very
hard as we wanted to win our own championship. We
had a very good team. I played alongside Sandeep
Somesh and Anil Aldrin (who represented India in
two Olympics). I really the enjoyed the concept of
team sports and hockey was right up my alley,"
recalled Dravid.

It was around this time that cricket in SJBS got a
shot in the arm with the presence of Fr. Freddy
Menezes, sports secretary and Fr.Dennis Coelho, the
principal. Fr Coelho had earlier served a stint as
principal at St Joseph's Indian High School where
cricket was a major sport. Test cricketers Syed
Kirmani, Roger Binny, Raghuram Bhat, Sadanand
Vishwanath, scores of State players including
Jeshwanth, Abhiram and a whole lot of other
cricketers had been educated in that school and Fr.
Coelho thus was exposed to the game 's demands and
popularity.

"Fr. Freddy was big on cricket. He was
enthusiastically backed by Fr Coelho. They insisted
that we could win the Cottonian Shield too. They
decided that we would give it our best shot. This
resulted in serious nets in cricket even during the
hockey season," revealed Rahul.

Former Ranji Trophy player Najam Hussain was roped
in as the coach. "He coached us for two years
followed by one year by Keki Tarapore. Suddenly,
for me everything cricket was falling into place.
The summer camp (mid-March to May end) at KSCA was
followed by daily evening nets at the school
grounds from the start of the academic year in
June. The school nets were different from the KSCA
camp, for I now had the opportunity of playing with
boys of my age. I started to really enjoy myself.
Further, I was making a lot of runs in the
Cottonian Shield and this further pepped me up."

By the time Rahul moved to the tenth standard,
Tarapore had taken over as coach of SJBS. He was a
former student himself and had had plenty of
experience coaching youngsters. He coached SJIHS
for the BT Ramiah Shield (for SSLC and HSC schools)
and SJBS for the Cottonian Shield.

Tarapore was also closely associated with Bangalore
United Cricket Club, one of the premier league
teams of Karnataka. Tarapore used to be a sort of
talent scout for BUCC and over the years he had
roped in a number of talented youngsters to the
team. Kirmani, Binny, Sadanand Vishwanath, Raghuram
Bhat, Abhiram, Carlton Saldanha , et al were some
of the players he had roped in for the club. The
president of the club was Dr Captain K. Thimmappaih
who was also the president of KSCA. Thimmappaih had
the distinction of scoring the maiden first class
century for the state. He was vastly experienced as
player, manager and administrator. He knew a good
player when he saw one and was never shy of backing
talent.

Tarapore, on whom Thimmapaih depended for
recruiting youngsters to his club, recognizing the
talent in Rahul, asked him to join BUCC.

"He told me that I could come to nets whenever
possible. Now this was great stuff for me. The club
practiced at KSCA in the morning and the school had
its nets at the Webbs ground in the evening.

"Of course it was very tough for me. I lived in
Indiranagar and from there went to KSCA in the
morning for nets. Immediately after nets I used to
rush to school (a couple of kilometers away).
School, those days started at 8.30 a.m. In the
evening, after school, I had to rush to the Webbs
ground (a couple of kilometers from the school) to
be in time for the school nets. My parents were
both working and it was very tough on them to get
me ready in time each morning, pack my breakfast,
lunch and tea. They could not drop or pick me up
and so it really meant ceaseless rushing from one
place to another," revealed Rahul.

Tough as those early days were, it also drilled a
sort of regimentation and discipline in Rahul's
schooling years. Of course, being an excellent
student he had to devote attention on studies too.

"I was not very strong or big those days and this
constant rushing about from one place to another
for cricket nets and matches used to leave me
exhausted. I think the fact that I found it
enjoyable to be in a team sport kept me going. I
was also getting a lot of runs and this goaded me
into trying all the harder," said Rahul.

It was during his formative years and in school
cricket that a challenge cropped up that would rear
its head again and again right through his career:
To wicket-keep or not to wicket-keep.

Extracted
from Rahul Dravid - a biography by Vedam Jaishankar.
Published by UBSPD. Rs 200/-